iSIZE raises $6.3m in funding led by Octopus Ventures to tackle environmental impact of video streaming

Investment will enable iSIZE to accelerate its traction and to continue strengthening its technical team and patent portfolio

London(06 May 2021)

iSIZE, a deep-tech company that applies deep learning to optimise video streaming and delivery, today announces that it has raised a further $6.3 million in funding as it seeks to make streaming more environmentally friendly without reducing quality.  

The round was led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from existing investors including TD Veen and Patrick Pichette, Chairman of Twitter and ex-CFO of Google. This brings the total funding raised by the company to $8.2 million. 

The amount of video streamed over the internet is at all-time high, a trend which has been accelerated by the pandemic and the shift to working from home. At the same time, streaming and content companies are facing pressure from users and advertisers to deliver ever-increasing video quality. With forecasts projecting video to reach 82% of total global internet traffic by 2022, there is also growing awareness of its carbon footprint, with research indicating that it already contributes to more than 1% of global emissions1. 

As a result, streaming and content providers are increasingly turning to technology to address the challenge of delivering a reliable and high-quality experience while managing the financial and environmental costs of doing so. 

To help solve this problem, iSIZE has pioneered deep-learning solutions that optimise video streaming quality while reducing bitrate requirements, allowing for a significant reduction in data and energy consumption.

The potential impact of its technology is huge and iSIZE has already attracted attention from some of the world’s largest technology companies to whom they already licensed their BitSave technology.

Headquartered in London, iSIZE was founded by Sergio Grce and Dr. Yiannis Andreopoulos who saw an opportunity to tackle the challenges caused by the explosion of video streaming. The founding team combines many years of research in machine learning, neural networks and video signal processing, evidenced by dozens of research publications. The company is also a graduate of the Creative Destruction Lab Oxford 2019-2020 programme where it received advice and investment from expert mentors.

iSIZE intends to use the funding raised to accelerate its traction in the U.S and to further strengthen its technical team and patent portfolio to continue improving the results and innovations it delivers to its customers. 

Sergio Grce, Founder and CEO of iSIZE, commented: “Today there are more people streaming more video than ever before. Our customers recognise both the commercial opportunity and their social responsibility to optimise their video delivery pipelines with our pioneering technology. We are excited to partner with Octopus Ventures to tap into their network and expertise in building world-changing companies.” 

Simon King, Partner and deep tech investor at Octopus Ventures, said: “The technology iSIZE has created is pioneering and is already being used by some of the world’s largest companies to reduce the costs and energy used in streaming. Consumer demand for high quality video is only going to increase as our devices are upgraded, so it’s vital that we find new ways to reduce the environmental impact. We are very familiar with this space having been an investor in Magic Pony and Sergio is one of those visionary founders who we believe can build something truly special.” 

iSIZE’s leading product is a proprietary AI-trained, deep perceptual optimizer that is trained to ‘see with the human eye’ in order to optimize video quality and deliver significant bitrate savings. Its technology has applications across VoD, live streaming, gaming and IoT and bolts-on to the existing conventional video delivery pipeline while integrating with all video encoding standards (including AVC, HEVC and AV1) – all without requiring changes to the streaming process or to end-users’ devices. This allows its customers to improve the end-user experience and reduce costs without breaking standards and with minimal deployment risk. 

-Ends-

Notes to editors:

1) The Sustainable Future of Video Entertainment - Interdigital, August 2020

Press Contacts: 

iSIZE - info@isize.co 

Octopus Ventures  - Sam.ferris@octopusinvestments.com / 020 3142 4933

About iSIZE Technologies 

iSIZE is a deep-tech company headquartered in London that specializes in deep learning for video delivery. Its proprietary deep perceptual optimizer uses AI trained to ‘see with the human eye’ in order to optimize video quality and offers significant bitrate savings for all video encoding standards, including AVC, HEVC and AV1. The first technology of its kind, it is deployed as an add-on feature to existing conventional video encoding pipelines, without requiring any changes in the streaming process or the client devices. This unique approach results in substantial bandwidth, energy and cost savings for VoD and live streaming services, broadcasters and other video entertainment platforms. 

For more information, please visit: www.isize.co 

About Octopus Ventures 

Octopus Ventures, part of the Octopus Group, is built to specialise in the four areas we believe will change the world for the better: health, money, deep tech and consumer. We have backed the founding teams of more than 100 companies including Zoopla, Secret Escapes, graze.com, tails.com, Swiftkey, Elvie, Depop, Sofar Sounds, Big Health, Bought By Many, ByMiles, OLIO and Cazoo. Some of our portfolio companies have gone on to join forces with the world’s largest businesses including Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Twitter. With £1.3 billion under management and investing over £100m a year, Octopus Ventures is one of the largest and most active venture investors in Europe. Our typical investment is from £1 million for Seed to £10 million for Series B and we can continue to fund the companies we back right through to IPO. We are based in London and New York with a network that spans from San Francisco to China. The companies we back become a part of this network, with access to a formidable resource of experience and expertise. 

 Our current investment focus: 

• Health: Transforming the health industry, from digital therapeutics through to biotechnology. 

• Fintech: Revolutionising society’s ability to exchange and allocate financial resources and risk. 

• Deep Tech: The tools and technologies that will power the next industrial revolution. These include quantum computing, robotics and drones, sensory human augmentation and 3D printing. 

• Consumer: Reinventing the everyday, in how we live, work, travel, play, rest and recuperate.